Residential demand response program modelling to compliment grid composition and changes in energy efficiency

Abstract

The path towards decarbonization in Canada is heavily reliant on electrification if the electricity grid is decarbonized. Besides the effectiveness in emission reduction, electrification offer opportunities to increase grid flexibility through demand response (DR) programs. Despite being widely seen in literature that DR programs are beneficial to the grid, there are limited, if any, residential DR programs available. As Canada has a diverse range of electricity grids, this study aims to determine how residential building DR programs impact grid operations on different archetypical electricity grids. The production cost model, SILVER, is used for this analysis. Additionally, various demand profiles are constructed to mimic changes in building stock efficiencies. It is found that grid composition plays a larger role in the effectiveness of a residential DR program than the efficiency of the building stock. Furthermore, increasing the efficiency of the building stock led to DR being more effective on grids where there are significant variable renewable energy sources. These results should motivate cities to consider residential DR programs as a tool to reducing emissions along with benefiting grid operations.